This invention relates to the cutting of cloth and similar sheet material, either as a single sheet or a lay-up of sheets, to cut parts or pattern pieces from the material with labels being placed on or near the cut parts to identify them during subsequent handling; and deals more particularly with improvements in the apparatus, labels and methods used in the labelling procedure.
In the cutting of sheet material, particularly limp sheet material such as cloth, it is customary to produce, through the use of computer assisted means, a marker, which may for example appear on the screen of a visual display unit, indicating the shapes and arrangement of parts to be cut from a quantity of work material. The information inherent in this marker is then processed in combination with ancillary input data to provide a set of marker instructions, or a drawn marker, usable by a cutting system. The cutting system includes a means for spreading a single sheet, or a lay-up of sheets, of sheet material to be cut, an automatically controlled cutting machine using the marker instructions or a manually controlled cutting machine using the drawn marker as a pattern for cutting the spread material, and a labeller operable to apply labels to the top surface of the work material, either before or after the cutting, to identify the parts cut from the material. In cases where the work material is a lay-up of sheets each "part" cut from the material actually consists of a stack of individual pieces and the system often also includes a bundler for bundling together the pieces comprising each such stack prior to the separation of the stacks from the waste material. An apparatus and method for making a marker representation is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,903. Labelling devices for use with sheet material cutting systems of the type in question are shown by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,028,167, 4,189,337 and 4,514,246. Bundling devices are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,349 and are also shown by pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/452,622, filed Dec. 19, 1989 and entitled "Method and Apparatus For Bundling and Removing Stacks of Pieces Cut From Lay-ups of Sheet Material", which application is assigned to the same assignee as this application.
As evident from the patents mentioned above, in the past it has been customary to mount the labeller either on the same carriage as the cutting head or on the carriage of the spreader and to control the positioning and operation of the labeller through the same controller as used to control the cutting head or spreader. Such labellers customarily include self-contained printers, with the information to be displayed by each label being printed by the labeller immediately prior to, or during, the application of the label to the work material.
The mounting of a labeller to a cutting head carriage or a spreader carriage has the disadvantage of preventing the cutting head or spreader from being used for its normal cutting or spreading purpose during the labelling procedure, and the reverse disadvantage of preventing the labeller from being used while the associated cutting head is used for cutting or the associated spreader used for spreading. Further, prior labellers have in general been of relatively complex and costly construction, and due to the printers used in such labellers preferably being of relatively small size and light weight the quality of the printing applied to the labels has tended to be of relatively poor quality. Also, all of the information to be printed onto the labels has had to be included in the instructions provided to the controller for the cutting head or spreader. The rate of label application has tended to be low because of limitations arising from the maximum speeds at which the associated cutting head carriage or spreader can be driven.
The general object of the invention is therefore to provide improvements in the application of labels to sheet material cut or to be cut by means of an automatically controlled cutting machine, such improvements residing in the labelling apparatus, in the supply of labels used by such apparatus, and in the method of generating and applying the labels.
A more particular object of the invention is to provide a labelling apparatus of simple construction capable of being made at low cost and of relatively light weight, which can be driven at relatively high speeds and rates of label application, which can be readily transferred between multiple points of use, which does not require cabling for connection to the cutting head or spreader controller or for other purposes, and which conveniently allows the application of labels having displays of high print quality.
In keeping with the foregoing object a still more specific object of the invention is to provide a labelling apparatus and related method of operation whereby the labels used by the apparatus are pre-printed before their association with the labeller thereby allowing the labels to be printed in advance of their use by a high quality printer located remote, if desired, from the cutting and/or spreading operations and which printer may be used efficiently during a given period of operation for printing labels for many different jobs with which the labeller is to be used.
Also in keeping with the above-stated objects, a more specific object of the invention is to provide a labelling apparatus and related method wherein the apparatus is a unitary selfdriven and self-controlled module capable of easy transfer from one point of use to another without requiring control cabling and connection to separate control equipment, the apparatus including a labeller, a means for moving the labeller relative to the supporting surface on which the work material is supported and a controller, with the labeller using a label supply means providing labels with pre-printed displays and also providing for each label a position code containing information identifying the position at which the label is to be applied to the work material, the drive means through the controller being responsive to such position codes to drive the labeller to the related points of label application.
Another object of the invention is to provide a labelling apparatus of the aforegoing character in which the applied labels may be of variable length and/or width.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a supply of labels for use with a labelling apparatus and method of the types mentioned.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.